Peddie: Intel will "never" buy Nvidia

Posted December 10, 2009 - 06:13
by
Aharon Etengoff

Naïve speculation and baseless rumors?

Industry analyst John Peddie has dismissed reports of Intel buying Nvidia as "naïve speculation." According to Peddie, Intel plans to design a "whole family" of Larrabee chips based on X86 architecture.

"Larrabee isn't dead. Wishful thinking won't make Intel or its ambitions go away. The company has, and continues to make, huge investments in the graphics technology and space," explained Peddie.

"Intel believes all esoteric architectures, of which they include the GPU ASIC, will fade away and only the X86 architecture will prove to be universal. It has endured for the past 40 years."

Peddie also noted that the acrimonious cultural differences between Intel and Nvidia ran "so deep" that it would be impossible to blend the corporations without a few homicides.

"It's unlikely, regardless of how big Intel's checkbook is, that the two companies could ever agree on the price. The Nvidia BOD and shareholders of Nvidia would never approve a friendly acquisition by Intel, and Nvidia has a multi-voting technique that would delay any hostile attempt for over a year," said Peddie.

"But most important is the fact - and it is a fact - that Intel doesn't think it needs Nvidia. The company has all the graphics IP it needs from Imagination Technologies, plus its own labs. It's not that Intel couldn't build a GPU, but rather that the company doesn't see today's GPU architecture as having long legs - they don't think it will scale and it certainly can't do MIMD."

Finally, Peddie warned against evaluating the computer industry as though it was little more than a game of chess.

"It's naive to evaluate the computer industry as though it was a chess board and say if White takes bishop then Black has to take queen. It just doesn't work that way, never has. The PC industry isn't sport. If you want to forecast the industry you better understand its working parts, the history of its people and the technologies within it."